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F1 title battle wide-open, Alonso insists

Although Fernando Alonso is in the Formula One championship lead, the driver insists that the championship is far from won. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Fernando Alonso is not taking anything for granted about his Formula One World Championship prospects.

Alonso will head into the August break leading the championship regardless of what happens in Hungary this weekend. He also has the chance of scoring his 31st win on his 31st birthday on Sunday, at the venue where he scored his maiden victory in 2003.

“I think we are in a good position in terms of points that we achieve in the first half of the season, in the first 10 races, but we are only half way,” Alonso said. “We did 10 and there remain another 10 important races, with the same possibilities for everybody. I think the distance between the top five, top six is not a distance or a gap that is impossible to recover. You just need one good race or two good races and you are up there.

“So, we need to keep the concentration, try to keep maximizing what we have in our hands every weekend. Sometimes we know that can be a podium, sometimes maybe it’s a fifth position, sometimes a seventh, but we cannot afford to make any mistakes or anything that we will regret.

“So, we need to keep doing good . . . some good consistency but in terms of the championship, it’s obviously way too early to think, and still McLaren, Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes—anyone is in contention at the moment.”

Alonso said that the Barcelona upgrade package was the key to the team’s upswing in form.

“Definitely we did improve the car a lot. I don’t know how much, or I cannot quantify it in terms of lap time because it will be difficult. I think between two and three seconds maybe, but obviously it’s a number that cannot be very precise.

“I think the biggest improvement that we introduced was in Barcelona; the biggest updates were mainly the aerodynamics of the car. But we knew that in the first three or four races, when we were in China, Bahrain, the car was not doing what we were expecting.

“And when we arrived in Barcelona, everything became a little bit more normal for us and from that point, all the updates it was fine-tuning. But the Barcelona one was to make everything back to work.”

Intriguingly, he also emphasized how much a third world championship would mean to him, as it would put him on a par with Ayrton Senna.

“Well, I think we need to wait and see when we have real possibilities of fighting for this championship. At the moment, as we said, we are happy with the points achieved in the first half but we need to keep working hard, we need to keep consistency and we need to keep doing good results. This can change very quickly, in two or three races, and then we talk about very different things.

“Not much point to talk about the championship now. But as I said, when we finished Brazil in 2006, it was a dream for me to win three world championships in my career. If it’s this year, in two years’ time or in six years’ time, I don’t know but the third one will be very important for me.

“To have the same as Ayrton had, three world championships—he was [an] idol or my reference when I was in go-karts and some big names, as you said, [Niki] Lauda etc. So three is a pretty good number, which I always dream of, and hopefully [it] arrives sooner rather than later.”

Alonso also reflected on his first win in 2003.

“When you win your first Grand Prix, it’s just a lot of emotions going on. A lot of satisfaction, pride in the team, of yourself, or family. . . . A lot of thoughts are coming when you win your first Grand Prix. You cannot imagine that you will repeat that feeling or that happiness more times or very often. So when you keep winning after some years, some different teams, different regulations that have changed a lot from 2003, obviously: V10, V8, Michelin, Bridgestone, Pirelli, refueling, no refueling.

“It has been a lot of time since 2003. If I look back, obviously, for sure, I never imagined to have the luck and the possibility to achieve the two world championships and now driving for Ferrari.”